Bernie Cosell wrote: [Dan:]
I recommend using Google Groups for Usenet and sci.math.research in particular.
[Bernie:]
Off topic, but *why*? -- I've tried using Google groups and find it mostly awful. I've never had any luck with its properly keeping track o what I've already seen, no kill files, you can't tag/highlight threads/posts/authors you're especially interested in, you can't [easily] save interesting posts or sort them into folders for later reference, you have essentially no control over how [and what] is displayed. It seems so inferior to using even a mediocre news client, much less a good one, that I'm surprised at the recommendation...
Ah, but that requires you to find a decently working news server. I don't know how it may be in other countries, but here in the UK many ISPs provide a lamentably poor Usenet feed, losing articles frequently and screwing up the status of moderated groups and so on. There are other servers available to the public, but they generally have to be paid for if you want posting privileges; there have been free ones, but they generally stop being free once they have many users.
The reason why cancels are often ignored by servers is that since there's no authentication and cancels are so easy to forge [I have to do that all the time for the newsgroup I moderate..:o)] that a malicious cretan can cause a lot of trouble.
"This posting is forged"? :-) -- g